Jet aircraft, such as commercial passenger and military aircraft, include nacelles for housing the jet engines. The nacelles couple the engines to the wings and include thrust reversers to reduce the aircraft's speed after landing. FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a section of an aft portion of a conventional nacelle 10. The nacelle 10 includes a fan casing 20 and a thrust reverser 30 aft of the fan casing 20. The fan casing 20 has a nozzle outer wall section 22 and a nozzle inner wall section 24 positioned radially inward of the outer wall section 22. The thrust reverser 30 includes a nozzle outer wall section 40 and a nozzle inner wall section 50 positioned radially inward of the outer wall section 40. The nozzle outer wall sections 22 and 40 and the nozzle inner wall sections 24 and 50 of the fan casing 20 and thrust reverser 30 define a nozzle 58 through which fan gas flows to produce forward thrust. The nozzle outer wall section 40 in the thrust reverser 30 includes a forward portion 42 with a leading edge section 44 and a blocker door 46. The blocker door 46 is movable between a stowed position (shown in FIG. 1) and a deployed position.
The conventional thrust reverser 30 further includes a translating cowling 32 coupled to the nozzle outer wall section 40 and a plurality of guide vanes 70 positioned operably between the translating cowling 32 and the nozzle outer wall section 40. The translating cowling 32 and the nozzle outer wall section 40 are movable as a unit between a stowed position (shown in FIG. 1) and a deployed position. In the deployed position, the cowling 32 and the outer wall section 40 are positioned aft of the guide vanes 70 so that the guide vanes 70 are exposed to gas flow in the nozzle 58 and the ambient environment. When the cowling 32, outer wall section 40, and blocker door 46 are in the deployed position, the blocker door 46 obstructs gas flow through the nozzle 58 so that at least a portion of the flow is diverted radially outward through the guide vanes 70. When the cowling 32, outer wall section 40, and blocker door 46 are in the stowed position, fan gas flows through the nozzle 58 to produce forward thrust. The nozzle outer wall section 22 of the fan casing 20 and the nozzle outer wall section 40 of the thrust reverser 30 form a generally smooth flow line and aerodynamically continuous surface to maximize the forward thrust produced by the engine. More specifically, at the transition between the fan casing 20 and the thrust reverser 30, the leading edge section 44 and/or the forward portion 42 of the nozzle outer wall section 40 is generally aligned with and parallel to the nozzle outer wall section 22 when the nozzle outer wall section 40 is in the stowed position.
One drawback of conventional thrust reversers is that they require large actuators and tracks for moving the translating cowlings and the nozzle outer wall sections between the stowed and deployed positions. The actuators and tracks are heavy and require significant space within the nacelle. Typically, the tracks project from the cowling and so the nacelle includes a fairing to enclose the tracks. The track fairing and the weight of the components reduces the performance of the aircraft nacelle. Therefore, a need exists to reduce the weight and size of a thrust reverser's actuator and tracks.